In Medias Res

The following brief post throws everyone right into the action . .

Anyone can jump in . . think of it as an open playroom until the adventure starts. You only need a name and concept as everything else can be fluid.

There are multiple reasons for this thread . . you can use it to build a background . . introduce yourselves . . learn a little about the setting . . decide if you like the GM and prospective players . . keep busy till the AP arrives.

Posting here is not mandatory and will not count against you with regard to selection.

The thread is open to anyone interested in playing/submitting an application.

Darkness has taken you, drawing you into an empty oblivion. Occasionally a image flashes into existence . . part memory . . part nightmare. Endless stairs, men in hooded robes, the stench of burning flesh, the sound of metal on metal, the taste and smell of the air before lightning strikes and fetid black water that chills you to the very core.

You wake slowly to find yourself in another kind of darkness, feeling a bone-deep ache that at least confirms you are alive. Above, as your eyes adjust, are the tiny pinpricks of light you had once dared to believe were stars. But you knew better now; the glow came from luminous fungi or moss growing on the roof of a cavern. They were not glowing embers on the vault of heaven . .

At least you were not alone . . a selfish thought . . but one you could not help. Yours was a shared fate. You had no idea how you came to be in this place . . everything between your last memories of freedom and waking in this place several days or weeks ago . . is a total blank.

Head swimming as light slowly returned to his conciousness, Daius gave a dark glance around to see that he was in some sort of cavern. Why was he here?.. Trying to struggle to his feet, he bit off a curse as sharp pain lanced through his left side, sending him back down. Reaching out like a blind man, his hand thankfully grasped gnarled but hard wood. Using it to take his weight off his left leg, he managed to return to his feet, leaning heavily against the comforting wood even as his dizziness threatened to again consume him. Glancing down at his feet, he found several others prone upon the floor. So he was not alone, and this was something supernatural, likely. Whispering a brief dweomer, the necromancer caused light to flicker into being above his staff, casting the others into stark relief. Disdaining that for the moment, however, he began to walk slowly down the tunnel, alert to his surroundings.

Lym watched the lying figures from it's alcove. it was silent. she could feel it observing through her haze. there was some sound, someone moved. some mutterings, and a light appeared in the cavern, tunnel, hole, whatever it was. there were quite a few of them here, the light conjuring figure standing amongst them. There was Miosil. Lym watched. the man started to walk away., covered in his hood.

Lym watched him, and then glided down. Miosil was still dazed, but there was no time for that. He sunk his talons in her arm, deep enough to cause pain.

Misoil awoke with the sharp sting in her left arm, as the owl fluttered away. she cursed him in elven, and a few other tongues before checking her surrounding. a second muttering, and another light sprang up to light the cavern. Miosil rolled to her side and rose to her feet slowly, still weak, still aching. almost due to her normal practice, she started checkingthose lying around, their condition. she could feel Lym's eyes on her, and the stranger down the tunnel.

"hey! you there! i could use your help you know!"

The Young woman was dressed in Brown, Gray and blue working clothes, her black hair falling to the sides of her face. her motions were sure and steady.

Andrei Mihatia

Andrei lurches up as the light strikes him, a rasping breath drawn in, clearing out the stale air in his lungs. His hands quickly find his daggers - that dagger - and some of the tension is drained from his body as he quietly pulls them free. Bodies lay strewn about him, but intuition tells him that the quivering motion in their limbs is not that of undeath, but rather the dreadful soreness that pervades his own body.

Quickly pulling himself to his feet, he turns to confront the light source. His eyes, unused to the light, cannot make out the man's features, but the stooped and painful manner in which he holds himself causes Andrei to believe that he is not one of his - what, captors? He was about to speak - to question this man - his voice pitched low when another light sprung up and a loud ringing voice shattered the silence. Andrei cringes at the sound, backing away from the light to hide himself in the shadows. The fool!

It was as he was backing away that Andrei saw clearly the man's face. Pale, drawn... unnaturally elegant. He snarls in instant hatred, the pale hand holding the black blade of Kalev's Heart twitching as if straining at a leash.

Consciousness returns bringing pain. Flexing muscles proves that nothing is broken, but, those muscles yell that they have been abused. Still, none of those muscles is complaining enough to signify any incapacitating damage.

Her eyes are open. Are those stars above? But there is no breeze. The air doesn't move. She is not outside. She strains her eyes to see when there is a flare of light to her left. The flare blinds her momentarily. She closes her eyes. Lightning strikes! What brought that to mind? She doesn't know.

She stands. Her formerly tightly fitting fighting outfit feels uncomfortably loose on her. She adjusts her outfit to make sure it both supports her properly and covers her modestly.

She shades her eyes to make out who provided the light. "Hello. I'm Septima Bloom. Do you know where we are?"

And suddenly, the half-orc awoke. She didn’t remember falling asleep, and the unfamiliar feeling of cool slick stone under her cheek gave her enough pause that her initial instinct--to sit up flailing and cursing—was checked for a moment as she did inventory on her body, tensing and releasing muscles to be assured that she was still…whole. There was a minor creak and the sliding weight of scale mail over abdominal muscles, and…

She appeared to be fine. In fact, other than an odd, fluttering feeling through her muscles and tension manifesting itself already as nausea, she appeared to be completely hale. Except for the memory gap. How had she gotten here? A brief foray through her memory brought her to a mental wall that stopped her flat. She fought the mental barrier, eyes squeezing shut, trying to recall…but all that would come to her was cold. The memory of deep, bone-deep cold, the kind of cold to lie down and ride into death…

She shuddered from the memory (memory?), opening her eyes to yellow slits, scanning the dimly lit cavern. Strangers (probably?), in varied states of pain and weakness, nothing familiar in anything. Her long, broad fingers momentarily clumsy, she fumbled reflexively for a flask at her belt, wanting to burn the fuzziness from her brain, introduce the comforting familiarity of spices in her mouth. She pulled herself up, first onto hands and knees, then to a proper seated position, leaning against a wall that glowed faintly against her skin, the protuberances of varied, unfamiliar fungi casting something like light around her.

It occurred to her that the mostly-still, twitching bodies around her might be in need of assistance, might be in the last throes of death already, and a shiver ran down her spine, a light roar worked its way down the tips of long ears. Jaw clenched, she turned to the body nearest her and shook it, roughly, needing assurance that this place wasn’t filled with the dying, and figuring someone must know where they were…how…why. The basics.

Miosil saw the others waking. good, less to care for, more to help. that needed conversing with them though...

"Hey there Septima. help me check on the others here will you?" she turned to the other one that awoke. was that a...? Miosil clenched her jaw. Orc-blooded. in scale mail. well, we can't always pick who we're with. "You too! lets make sure everyone is up and awake. then maybe we could make sense of this. i SURE don't remember getting into this cave!

She could feel Lym's nervousness of the situation, and amusement of her. he has seen... something, someone in the shadows. Not now! priorities Miosil! there were not many left to take care for...

Andrezi awoke to being roughly shaken. He sat up with a start, and started panicking almost immediately. Nothing looked even remotely familiar, and his head snapped around trying to find anything he recognized to reassure himself. His eyes finally settled on the one who had awoken him. A half-orc by the look, though from her expression she seemed as lost as he was. He turned to hear another voice call out and realized they weren't alone. He stood gingerly, every muscle in his body aching. He looked around, trying to remember what had happened or what he was doing here, but nothing came. He reached down and touched his pockets and sides - all of his things were with him at least.

He turned back to the half-orc and nodded politely at the one who had brought him back around. "Thank you," he added. He looked around at the other bodies - some moving some still motionless. "Well. At least we aren't alone." He walked over to the nearest one and nudged it with his boot hoping that like him whoever it was still lived.

Valeria walked back towards the others, alert and resolute as always, the fungi illuminated enough of the path for her to see but she was already starting to miss the light of day, even if it wasn't long since she'd seen it... or was it?...

As she came near the entrance of the cave she noticed a strange magical light, moving swiftly as worry started to grip her she came face to face with some sort of creature... Valeria drew her blade in a quick motion and readied herself - just like her training had ingrained it upon her instincts by now. Pointing the tip of her blade she stated with a commanding voice "HALT!" as her eyes adjusted to the new light, the features of its face became apparent.

Oh... it's him...

Him was one of the others that seemed to share her fate... Moments ago when she first woke up she noticed she wasn't alone, others lay there sleeping or unconscious, the first thing Valeria did before regaining her bearings was to visualize the auras of those that were here as well, his aura was... tainted to say the least...

Looking beyond the hooded man she saw that others were starting to regain consciousness, him did not look like a threat, at least for now, so, sheathing her sword Valeria exclaimed "Is anyone hurt? does anyone remember anything?"